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Doc to Form and Save as Doc: My Two Favorite Google Add-ons This Week

This week I have found two new Google Drive Add Ons that are making my digital life as a teacher more functional.

Doc to Form and Save as Doc are similar in that they both help you convert information in one type of Google file to another type.

Doc to Form, as it says, helps me easily convert questions written on a Google Doc to a Google Form ready for people to fill out and answer. Late last week our school nurse asked me if I could transform the quiz teachers have to take about blood borne pathogens and convert it to a Google From. She sent me a Word file. I uploaded it to Google Drive and used Doc to Form to make the transformation process faster. This tutorial video shows you how it works in about 90 seconds. Doc to Form is free for up to 10 questions. If you need more, there is a really easy process to donate $3 to the developer via paypal and use up to 50 questions. (I highly recommend donating, and I have no financial stake in that suggestion.)

Save as Doc is an add on for Google Sheets. It lets you quickly convert rows in a spreadsheet to a Google Document. You can even have it automatically page break between each row, so that each entry ends up on it's own page. You can select which rows you want converted. I'll be using this to generate reader friendly versions of some applications we are collecting with a Google Form. (And yeah, I made that form with Doc to Form.) I figured out Save as Doc without having to watch a tutorial video, but if you want the two minute lesson, Richard Bryn has a great one.

I know I'll be using both of these a lot to make forms and documents from docs and spreadsheets.

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SAMR, developed by Ruben Puentedura, is one model for examining the evolution of tech integration in classrooms. It focuses on the type of work students are doing and how much that work deviates from traditional classroom practices. In a sense, it measures the future against the past. This four minute video is great if you would like to hear him explain it in his own words.

I like the SAMR model and I think it does what models are supposed to do, it get us talking and thinking about the work going on in our classrooms. This graphic shows the progression of a teacher's thinking with a bit of humor too.

As a model though, I think SAMR has some issues we need to talk and think about more. This is my list of concerns.

For further exploration:

It privileges the modification and redefinition stages such that good teaching without tech is marginalized. Even after five years of 1:1 I still have a few fabulous lessons that just work better on paper. They are worth keeping even if they do n…

Considering National Boards? I recommend the process, but you should know what you are getting into. Start early and get organized.

In the spring of 2016 I began pursuing National Board Certification for teaching. I know eventually someone will ask me for my thoughts and advice about that process, so I'll capture them now while the experience is fresh. Because I teach 9th grade, and previously taught middle school for ten years, I decided to do my NBCT in the area of Young Adolescent ELA. (Yes, I also taught 11th grade for six years, but that was a while ago.)

Though some do it in one year, I'm taking two years to complete my NBCT. Last summer, at a small local conference, I stumbled into a conversation about National Boards and happened to find out that my County Office of Education sponsored a support program. I was just in time to sign up. Through that program I got early advice and support to help me understand expectations and deadlines. The amazing staff at the County O…

It happens to all of us sometimes. Your perfectly planned lesson goes just a bit faster than you expected and you have a few minutes left at the end of class. Or maybe your students have been showing some excellent focus on their projects and you want to give them a few minutes of fun. My students have to put their laptops in a cart at the end of class and that takes a few minutes. For whatever reason it's good to have a few things you can pull up fast and engage students with for those last few minutes. These are some of my favorites. Share your's in the comments.

GeoGuesser:https://geoguessr.com/
This site drops you at a spot in the world and you have to guess where you are. It's good for a quick lesson in observing details. It's funny how often it seems like the picture seems to be from one place, but it really a whole different continent. I'll have one student come up to play, but the whole class loves to watch and make suggestions. Pro tip, teach them they can…